Winsted: NCCC professor named Engaged Educator of 2016

Published 2:00 am, Saturday, May 21, 2016

WINSTED >> Tara Jo Holmberg, Northwestern Connecticut Community College Professor of Environmental Science and Biology, was recently named the Connecticut Community Engaged Educator of 2016 by Connecticut Campus Compact.

This award honors an outstanding individual for having significant influence on student civic learning and development. Holmberg is being recognized for her role in creating and furthering a culture of engagement through working with campus leadership, supporting faculty/staff engagement, and fostering meaningful community partnerships.

Throughout her 14 years at NCCC, Holmberg has incorporated a number of different service-learning and civic engagement projects within classes such as Ecology, Botany, and Environmental Science. Students in her courses learn about natural systems and give back to the community by monitoring local impaired watersheds over time, collecting information on local forests to identify changes in the forest ecosystems, gathering behavioral data on rare and endangered waterfowl for a conservation organization, and constructing rain, pollinator, and buffer gardens on campus to repair natural habitats along the Still River which runs through the NCCC campus. In November, she will be presenting the results of this work at the National Association of Biology Teachers conference in Denver, Colorado.

In addition to the outreach within her classes, Holmberg has developed environmental and conservation educational programming for the larger community of the northwest corner of Connecticut. She has been a Board Member of the Northwest Conservation District since 2010 and has served with several other community organizations over the years.

On campus, Holmberg is the chair of the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math departments and advises for the Environmental Science, Natural Resources, and Engineering/Manufacturing programs. She also serves as the Chair of the Community Engagement Committee and the Chair of the Sustainability Committee.

On June 2, Holmbergwill be recognized with several other Campus Compact award winners at the Civic Action Summit, which will be held at Southern Connecticut State University.